Friday, December 1, 2006

STS-116

STS-116, the next Space Shuttle mission on the shuttle Discovery is scheduled to launch on December 7, 2006. What makes this launch special is Sunita Williams, Flight Engineer on the mission. Yet another Person of Indian Origin to be proud of.

Kalpana Chawla made Indians proud as being the first Indian woman in space. Her last shuttle mission, however, ended in a tragedy. Women of Indian origin whether born in or out of India are clearly doing a great job.In addition to being on the Space Shuttle Mission STS-116 Sunita Williams will join Expedition 14 (already in progress) on the International Space Station. So she will soon be first person of Indian origin to actually live in Space.

Now, this leads me to a different debate altogether... I wonder whether India stands to gain by collaborating with the US in these space missions. India's first astronaut went to space with the help of the soviets. Should we try to send another via the US shuttle missions? Is there any value to such a collaboration?

WEIRD AS IT MAY SOUND BUT THERE ARE A LOT OF INDIANS WHO IMMIGRATE TO OTHER COUNTRIES AND THEN HATE TO BE CALLED INDIANS. HOWSOEVER THEIR ROOTS ARE INDIANS. SO THEY SHOULD BE PROUD TO BE INDIAN. ONLY THEN WILL THE WORLD RESPECT AND BE PROUD OF THEM.

ADD Rahul Varma to your list of eminent Indo-Canadians too. He is a dramatist par excellence, based in Montreal. He has a theatre group called Teesri Duniya and is doing meaningful work. You can access his work @ www.teesriduniyatheatre.com .